Either we are thrilled or we are worried. Social media has made us addictive, lonely and deprived us of human contact OR it has made us extremely social, loving and caring. This is at least the usual discourse about social media- which is actually quite boring. Let me say this once and for all: Social media does neither! Social media is neither the cause of loneliness nor extreme happiness.
Social media is:
- the framework for digital social interaction
- a tool to administrate our social network
- an extension of our everyday social life
- a social space where your private and public social network unfolds at the same time in the same space
- a space with different qualities than physical space – or rather an extension of physical space that adds a “different” dimension to physical space
- a place with a different dimension, which is really not that complicated: things can be copied, distributed widely and they are searchable.
- a potent and powerful tool that can be used for extremely good things or extremely bad things
- a social sphere where you are the one with the power to make things good or bad (not the medium itself)- so just use social media responsibly (“mediamocracy”).
Social media has different qualities than “physical space”. And its here now!We learned to walk among each other on earth – I am sure we can also learn to do the same on the internet.
